Islander receives special guest

Taken from the Sept. 27 Island Dispatch

Fri, Oct 4th 2013 09:25 pm

Navy veteran Peter Xanthos of East River
Road (pictured at center) recently hosted visitors, including his shipmate from
World War II, Walter Frey.

Frey, his daughter Sharon Estes and
son-in-law John Estes from California visited Xanthos on a sightseeing tour,
which included a trip to the Buffalo Naval Serviceman's Park. They also had a
meeting at Town Hall with Grand Island Supervisor Mary Cooke.

Xanthos and Frey served as shipmates on
the U.S.S. Bingham (pictured at far right) as members of the U.S. Navy
Amphibious Forces, which served 18 months in the Pacific Theater in WWII. The
ship was part of the effort to land troops and supplies on the beach at Saipan
and Okinawa, the costliest battle in killed and wounded in the Pacific war.

Xanthos said that the men endured two or
three air raids a day.

"We had kamikaze air raids every day
while unloading," Xanthos said.

After the Japanese surrender, Xanthos and
Frey were assigned to the "Magic Carpet Task Force" bringing military personnel
back home to the U.S.

They were also part of the freeing of
Allied prisoners of war held captive for more than three years.

"We transferred them from a hospital
ship and took them to the Philippines" for flights back to their home country, Xanthos
said. The POWs were American, British, Australian and Dutch soldiers captured
shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack.